WPP’s Sorrell wants Egypt the Future to be held annually

The chief of the world’s biggest advertising company has called for the Egypt the Future conference to become an annual event.

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, said it was important to have a “focal point” to track progress.

“It is very important for there to be a focal point for industrial development and investment and this could very well become a regular event,” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the Egypt the Future conference in the Red Sea resort city.

The event which brought together more than 2,000 delegates, heads of state and the chiefs of some of the world’s largest corporations, winds up today.

The conference, unprecedented in its scale for Egypt, was aimed at assuring potential investors that the rewards of investing in the country outweigh the risks.

The Arab world’s most populous country is emerging from four years of political chaos and political stagnation in the aftermath of the 2011 uprising that ousted Egypt’s long standing president, Hosni Mubarak.

He said that Egypt represented a big opportunity for WPP at a time of slow global growth in the advertising industry this year.

“This year continues to be tough,” he said. “So you look at a country with 90 million people that has good education rates, good consumer demographics good GDP growth. That is something companies will find very attractive. It is rare you find opportunities of this size from a fast growth market.

WPP was involved in organising the event through its stake in Richard Attias & Associates.

Source: The National